1. PHILIPPINE’S OLYMPIC RUN
By: Zyra Intal
The country’sOlympicrepresentative,teamPhilippines,competedatthe 2012 summerOlympics
heldon London,United Kingdom last July 27, 2012 to August 12, 2012. The country was representedby
11 athletes who competed in eight sports, making it the smallest Philippine delegation since 1936.
Unfortunately,teamPhilippinesfailedtogarneranOlympicmedal forthefourthtime since theyear2000.
The team was composed of 11 athletes. Four of them made it to the Olympics because every
country is required to send in a delegation for the swimming and athletics category and the rest of the
country’s representatives won on the qualifying matches held in different countries.
Asscheduled,the Philippineswasrepresentedbytwoathletesinarchery,namelymarkJavierand
rachelle anncabral. Javiercompetedinmen’sindividual eventinarchery.Alsocabral competedlastjuly
27, 2012 where she scored627 in the rankinground,whichplacedher48th
out of 64 competitors.Iinthe
firstround of the knockoutstage,she faced innastepnovaof Russia.Stepnovawonthe first,secondand
fourth set resulting to final score of 7-1, stepnova won eliminating cabral from the tournament. In the
men’sindividual event,Javiercompeted lastjuly28, 2012. He placed36th
of 64 in the rankinground and
was eliminated in the first round of tournament where he scored 649. This made him rank 55 of 64
competitors.
Swimmers Jessie lacuna and jasmine alkhaldi were unable to match their personal bests in their
respective events.18 yearsold Jessie lacuna finishedthe men’s200 meterfreestyle eventwiththe time
of 1:52.91 placing him 36th
among 40 players in the Olympics, meaning he could not advance to semi-
finals,asonlythe top 16 swimmers withthe besttime will advance.Onaugust1, 2012, alkhaldi finished
the woman’s100meterfreestyle withatimeof 57.13secondsinthe heat.Overall,she ranked34th
among
the 50 competitors in the event but she did not move on to the semi-finals.
LightflyweightboxerMarkbarriga,made itthroughthe firstroundafterhe convincinglydefeated
Italian, manuel cappai. Barriga scored a convincing 17-7 over manuel cappai of Italy, unleashing a
combination of punches forcing cappai to a standing-eight count. The first round ended with barriga
leading at 5-2. At second round, barriga widened his leading to 9-4 after he continued his barrage of
punches.The thirdroundwasjustthe same , endingthe fightwith17-7score.But barriga’sdreamended
soonafter Kazakhstan’sbirzhanzhakypovbestedbarrigainthe roundof 16 by a single pointwithabout
resulting in a score of 17-16.